A Path Not Taken
by Icarus Defiled
Summary: D watches a tiger run through a bamboo forest at sunset.


Betad by the wonderful Rose Mistress

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D watches a tiger run through a bamboo forest at sunset, the plants both shielding and trapping. The bamboo gives way to a wall of begonias and calla lilies and the tiger turns to face D. A raven cries as it flies over the two and drops a sprig of red cypress into D's hand. When D turns back to the tiger it is lying on a bed of red baby's breath. No. The flowers are white, but covered in red, glistening life. The tiger is dying and from his blood springs forth hemlock and marigold. As the sun rises the tiger fades and a cub is left behind swaddled in trefoil. D wakes sweating holding a crimson rose.

_Detective, I have a feeling about today. Are you very certain you can not call in? Just this once?_

The paint is thick and oily as it is smeared on beneath blue eyes, slowly to ensure an even coat to keep the perspiration from running too freely over his face. Each strap is carefully tied, there is a ritual in this, and a prayer whispered with each movement: please god let this save me, let me come home tonight. The riot gear is heavy on his shoulders as he slips the helmet on and checks his frequency, and with a last whispered prayer to anything that will listen Leon boards the truck with Jill.

_It will be fine, D. How often have you seen me damn near die and crawl back with nothing more than a shiny new scar? This is just another day at the office._

Dammit. Dammit. Dammit. Armor piercing rounds. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. What's the god-damned use of fucking one hundred pounds of riot gear if they hand out cop killers to any bigot with enough cash? Another bright flare and oh god, Jill. Molotov Cocktails and they burn like napalm and the suits are fire proof but not and oh god, oh god, oh god. Please let her live. Dear lord please.

_Don't worry D. I do this all the time._

A collar bomb on Mrs. Woo's granddaughter, the one S.W.A.T. was sent in to find took out the truck and half the team. Dead man switch tied into the girls pulse and a healthy dose of ofdimethyl mercury. And dear god where in the hell did they get this shit. I sure as fuck didn't learn that shit in high school chem. And that's all they are is fucking teenagers. Children running around in white riot gear like something out of a bad sci-fi B-movie.

_Just do me a favor and tuck Chris in for me alright. I don't know when I'll make it back. It's gonna be a long fuckin' night tonight D._

The F.B.I. had been looking for this group of racist fuckers for five years, but is was only in the last couple of hours that things got bad. Pipe bombs placed under cars at schools. Nail bombs in mailboxes, sidolówka thrown into masques and temples and a whole lot of dead innocent. Mostly mothers and children. They started in the ethnic parts of North East and West L.A. and worked in; hitting every district they found to be of "suitable ethnic contamination".

_And now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep._

We caught them in Little Tokyo, headed into China Town and for once the gangs are standing with the damn police. Not that it is doing much good. They blocked the harbor and have Downtown circled. They blocked us in and the military is trying to help but they hit every major city in North America. All of them more than willing to die for something as goddamn stupid as skin colour, and if the military march on this city or any of the others they will detonate enough of bombs to wipe out most of fucking continent.

_And if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. Very good Christopher! Sleep well and dream sweetly._

D and Chris are still in there. We are still trapped and there is no way out. The sun rose and they retreated but they know that we are cut off from supplies. It is only a matter of time before either they return to kill us or we turn on ourselves. For today we are regrouping and counting losses. They sent out a broadcast earlier about this being a Night of Cleansing Flame. That only the pure would be left standing among the ashes of the damned.

_D! Are you alright? They didn't make it in this far did they? Stupid shit! What are you doing out here? You coulda fuckin' been killed you emph..._

Suddenly one hundred pounds of pissed off, crying pet shop owner is hurled at Leon and refuses to let go. Sore as Leon is, as tired and scared for one second nothing exists but the feel of D in his arms and the caress of silken lips over his own. The feeling is ruined by the sound of a gunshot and a blinding pain across his shoulder. There is silence as all eyes turn to Officer Andrew Paterson.

_They... they said that they would let us go. The... the pure ones. I was gonna tell ya, Leon. When we were alone but then you turned out like them. Like the rest of them freaks. It's not too late for the rest of you. If you repent you will be forgiven your crimes against your brothers. You will be saved fr...._

Another shot rings out and Andy falls. Jill, burnt and in agony but still Jill. Still the woman that kneed an instructor for groping her during a fight; and then went outside and keyed his thousand dollar car for the hell of it. Leon looks over himself sees fresh blood but not his own. He turns to D and notices how raged his cheongsams is, how large the hole over his heart. There is a look in his eyes that screams _Please, Leon. Just a little longer._

Back at the pet shop and everything is so very silent. Chris is asleep, wrapped up in a giant cocoon thing. The sound of D's cup shattering brings a tidal wave of sobs and among slips forth a story. D's story. Of Kami's and dragons and vampires and fucking talking animals. D finishes with a soft: _I love you_ and waits. Leon is not a stupid man. Stupid men do not become detectives. No, Leon is not stupid but he is human and the human mind is a fragile thing. He leaves D sitting on the couch, hope turning to despair turning to rage and goes back to the precinct.

_Mister Detective, your brother whishes to see you to assure that your worthless person is whole. I know that even rudimentary manners are far above your Neanderthal mind but do Endeavour to show some semblance of working neurological ability and realize that our problems have nothing to do with Christopher._

It is another week before Leon swallows his pride and goes back. There has not been another attack. The optimists theorize that the opposition is losing and can not waste the man power to destroy them. Leon in not a fool and knows that the reason there have been no attacks is because they are dying and there is no point sending in an army when starvation and despair could do just as well. Leon feels the need to pray and he finds that the only god he can believe in is this tarnished Kami before him.

_pleasepleasepleaseOhGodOhGodD! Ooooooooh! More please. Dear god, don't stop._

It is not until later that Leon remarks on the sweet taste D left in his mouth and thinks of ambrosia and damnation. As D curls around him serpent-tight and presses apple red kisses onto bruised flesh he decides that hell can't be all that different from here anyway. When he wakes he is back in hid twenties, every scar and mark on his skin gone. He turns to D with hatred on his tongue and see him laying there, devil perfect and angel tempting, and thinks: fuck it. He has better uses for both their tongues anyway.

D is dreaming again. This time there is no forest and no tiger. Just a child clothed in lilies and hemlock walking a path laid rubies. D wakes covered in sweat and coming down Leon's warm throat. and doesn't notice the sprig of butterfly weed fall to the floor. The talk of inconsequential things as watch everything begins to fade around them.

There was a bomb; a Doctor with eyes as cold as jewls sold it to them, in exchange for a Knight in Blue. It was supposed to wipe out anything that was not kept within their holy grounds. Instead he sold them a blackout bomb that fried anything with a circuit system in it in every major country on the globe. The Doctor and the Detective went in search of a boy in a rose briar and found him in the city of angels, guarded be a tiger skull and wind that smelled of marigolds and heliotrope and fresh red apples.

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Feel free to message me if you want to know what the flowers mean.


End file.
